


Brief and False Advertisements

by petpluto



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, POV Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-19
Updated: 2013-03-19
Packaged: 2017-12-05 20:09:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 8,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/727413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petpluto/pseuds/petpluto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piz experiences the aftermath caused by the events in 3.20's The Bitch is Back. Parker eventually joins him for the ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Not mine.
> 
> The title comes from the Bright Eyes song False Advertising, which is a much moodier and depressing song than this story deserves, but there you go.
> 
> I like Piz. I wanted to write something from his point of view. This is what I ended up with.

It’s the going away party for all of those in the group who are going away for the summer, held at once even though they’re leaving in dribs and drabs, in order to maximize, as Wallace said, the fun. And, Piz thinks, the attendance, because after the strange and torrid events at the end of the semester, there are fissures in their group he doesn’t know if anyone anticipated.

Wallace, who bullied Veronica into helping, has set the party up to be an all day affair, so the flow of party goers can be unabated by such things as other obligations. Most everyone he knows well are in it for the long haul. 

Parker and Mac are standing together, even though Parker has been chilly to everyone since she broke up with Logan. And she’s been downright arctic to Veronica.

Veronica is at his side, holding the drink he got for her. She’s chatting with a guy she insisted be invited, even though Piz has never seen him before today. He thinks the guy was introduced as ‘Weevil’, but that’s so strange that it can’t be right.

Weevil is telling Veronica a story about, he thinks, stealing a car, and she’s laughing brightly and looking more engaged than he’s seen her in a long time. He can’t help but feel like he’s out of step with them.

“It’s a good thing they didn’t hire Veronica to find the car,” he says. “Otherwise, you’d be in trouble.”

The good vibrations dissipate, and they both look at him with curtained faces and blank eyes. Veronica’s the one who replies, telling him, “Yeah, but only with me.” Bumps the guy with her shoulder. He grins back at her.

“Yeah,” he tells Piz, “I’d be getting an earful. Probably have to return the damn thing too.”

Piz watches her nod primly. “Oh, of course. Unless there was something in it for me. Or if you had a really, really good reason for boosting it.”

“Like, to put tuna in the inner workings?” Weevil presses. Veronica tightens up some more, and Piz is left wondering what the story is.

“Exactly,” she grinds out.

Weevil laughs at her, and wanders away muttering about getting a refill. Piz notices that he liberates Veronica’s empty can from her hands before he goes. 

“Don’t be a stranger,” his girlfriend calls out after him.

The guy turns as he continues walking, yells back, “I’ll catch you later, Vee. Can’t let you run off to Virginia without making sure they won’t corrupt you.”

“How could they corrupt you?”, he asks.

She laughs. “By making me respect the law? Weev’s just nervous we won’t be on the same side after this.”

“And what side is that, exactly?”

Veronica looks out onto the ocean, and shrugs. “Our own side.” 

“Yeah, uh,” he feels the nervous laugh bubbling up, “I don’t know what that means.”

She smiles at him indulgently. “Well, it means that sometimes Weevil and I bend the law in order to achieve our goals. And our goals are generally one and the same when we choose to involve the other.”

He swallows. “So, you help him do illegal stuff?”

“Usually, he’s helping me do illegal stuff. And I’m helping him stay out of prison by proving he doesn’t do other illegal stuff.”

“How do you know he doesn’t do it?” Veronica looks at him questioningly, so he expounds. “How do you know that when you help him stay out of prison, he’s not guilty?”

She grins the grin of a cat who ate the canary. “When Weevil asks for my help proving his innocence, it’s because he is. If he weren’t, I’d find out. And then he’d be in trouble.”

“Because you’d turn him in.” Finally, today is returning to a semblance of normalcy.

But Veronica looks at him strangely. “Not necessarily. He’d owe me. The amount he owed would depend on the size of the job.”

“That’s, uh, not really legal,” he tentatively throws out.

She stills, and in that moment, she is a complete alien to him. So beyond his understanding, it is almost offensive. “I’m not really on the side of ‘legal’. I’m on the side of me and mine.” She grins, and snaps back into focus as Veronica, girl he’s crazy for and girl he’s dating. “And, you know, those who can afford my rate.”

“Just, uh, for argument’s sake, though, what if he told you he did something illegal and asked for your help?”

She’s wandering down the beach now, toward the coolers. “You know, I became friends with Wallace and Weevil in the same week?”

It seems like such a non sequitur. “Um, I didn’t even know Weevil existed before today.”

“Right, well, I did. Wallace had pissed off Weevil and his gang, and -”

“Wait,” Piz feels like he’s stepped into a different world. “That guy was in a gang?”

“That guy ran the gang,” Veronica corrects. “Anyway, Wallace got two of the PCHers - the gang - arrested, and I got the security tape from the police station to get them off so Weevil and them would leave Wallace alone.” She opens up the cooler and grabs a soda, gets him out a beer. “So, what I guess I’m saying is, our friendship is based on my doing that exact thing. Even though it was mainly for Wallace at the time.”

He gives a befuddled chuckle. “You know, sometimes I feel like I don’t know you at all.”

“Hmm,” she looks like she’s pondering, before she looks up at him slyly. “Is this because I’m a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma?”

“Yeah,” he says quietly, full of earnestness and hope. “That’s it exactly. You’re a puzzle. I’m hoping to work on solving it, though.”

“Good luck,” she answers. “I think I lost some of the pieces.”


	2. Chapter 2

Logan arrives to little fanfare. Not a lot of people seem to notice him. Piz only does because Veronica straightens up and focuses in on him immediately. He takes a second to wonder how they do that. If they even know they do that. She waves to him, and Logan smiles and waves back.

“I thought he was out of your life,” he says. He’s trying for cool, but he’s pretty sure he just sounds disgruntled.

Veronica shifts uncomfortably. “Yeah, that may have been little more than hyperbole.”

Piz reflects on how that seems unfair, given that he’s still bearing the marks of his run in with Logan’s fists. He’s going to have to go home with a faded black eye and ribs that still ache, and Logan is weaving through Wallace’s basketball friends in an unhurried gait toward them like nothing in the world is wrong with that picture.

“He beat the shit out of me, Veronica,” he can hear himself hiss.

She’s choosing not to look at him, watching Logan’s progress instead. “I know, Piz. But, he thought he had good reason to.”

“And that makes it ok?” he mutters. But Logan is there and grinning, and Veronica is matching his grin, and they’re just looking at each other like they both know some great secret they’re not willing to share with the outside world.

“Brought you a drink,” Logan opens, and hands the can to Veronica. “You seemed like you might be a little parched.”

“Oh, did I?” Veronica parries back as she opens the soda. 

“Well, you made me walk all the way over here to you, when most of the party is closer to the grill. So, I figured you must be dying of thirst and just couldn’t drag yourself to the nearest oasis.”

“Or we wanted to be alone,” Piz grumbles.

Logan shoots him a look and then holds up two bottles of beer. “Piz! I didn’t know what your poison was, so I grabbed a fancy looking micro brew from New Hampshire, and a Bud. Your pick.”

He grabs the Bud, leaving Logan with the other. “Wow, I thought for sure you would have gone for the specialty beer. It seemed more your general aesthetic.”

“Logan,” Veronica warns, but there isn’t anything following the drawling of his name.

“Yeah? What do you think, Ronica? Did you figure your boyfriend for drinking the beer of corporatist America, or did you think he would support the small, independent brewer just trying to scrape by?”

“What did you learn in Economics, anyway?” she asks him, bemused.

Logan stops to think. “What I learned... You ready?” Veronica nods. “I learned that money is just a conceptual thing.”

“Right.”

“That markets compete for the consumer base’s conceptual thing in exchange for their goods and/or services.” He leans in. Veronica doesn’t lean back.

“Uh huh.”

“And that if you ask Mac to help you create a business plan, she can do it in like 48 hours, but when you present it to your professor, he’ll ignore all the evidence and give you a failing grade.”

“Logan.” Piz wonders how Veronica can make his name sound like an answer to a prayer, like empathy and absolution all in one. He guesses he can’t be upset she can’t do that with his name. No one probably could, with a moniker like Piz. Or Stosh, for that matter. He hates Logan a little for it. He figures he wouldn’t be human if he didn’t, so it’s okay. Plus, it’s pretty clear Logan doesn’t like him much either.

Logan grimaces a bit at her as she reaches for him, but still lets her cup his elbow. “Hey, it’s okay. If Mac’s right, we’ll be swimming in revenue before the summer is out.” He shrugs. “Then I’ll take my earnings report and shove it in Corrigan’s face.”

“You’re going to have an earnings report?” Veronica still hasn’t moved her hand; and even though she’s still standing next to him, Piz feels her slipping further and further away.

“Uh, yeah.” Logan ruffles his hair with the hand attached to the arm Veronica isn’t holding, and Piz wonders if he thinks he looks cool when he does that. “I kind of have to. Mac owns 50% of the company, and she’s apparently a stickler for that sort of thing. Says she likes to see her money in pie chart form.”

“So, Mac is going to create the earnings report?” Veronica is smiling a sweet smile.

Logan laughs breathlessly. “No. She’s having my accountant do it. She wants it to be a surprise.”

“Well, of course. What good is it to get handed proof you’ve got a bunch of money if you know about it beforehand?”

“Yeah,” Logan smirks. “Knowing you have money to spend is such a drag.”

For the second time, Piz feels like he’s being left behind in a conversation Veronica is having. He wants to interject, to remind them both that he’s still here, but he can’t figure out how. Somehow, “Heh, you’re rich and we’re not” doesn’t seem appropriate.

“Well,” he finally says, “I’m going to go see about some food.” He glances expectantly at Veronica. She doesn’t move to follow. 

“Alright. I’ll find you in a bit.”

“Oh, okay then,” He gets out, and makes his way toward the grill and Wallace.


	3. Chapter 3

It has been over an hour, and Veronica is still hanging out with Logan. He’s done the rounds himself, chatted with Wallace, seen some people from the radio show, listened to Mac talk about plans to expand her business with Logan into a gradeyourwhatever.net thing, and how she wants to talk to Veronica again about starting up something called Get the Dirt. He nods along, even though he’s not really sure what she’s talking about.

And all the while, he’s trying to ignore the looks that are flying between his girlfriend and her ex, until he sees their heads dip closer together. He doesn’t even recognize the fact that he’s moving until he’s already there, in front of them.

“Piz!” Veronica sounds surprised. They’re both holding plates of food. He wonders when that happened. “What’s up?”

“Can I talk to you?” He reaches for her, goes to pull her away.

She looks puzzled. “Yeah, sure.” Smiles at Logan. “I’ll be back.”

He doesn’t know why, but that upsets him more than almost anything else that’s happened. All the things that are flashing neon lights telling him he doesn’t know his girlfriend at all. “I really thought you were done with him.”

Veronica turns so she’s not facing him, her mouth pulled tight. “And I really thought that you got that I overreacted, and that I’m not.”

He knows it’s a mistake the second he says it, but he just can’t stop himself from saying it. “If you had to choose, would it be him or me?”

Veronica looks pained. “Piz, don’t do this.”

“So, uh, it would be him, then, huh?” His voice breaks.

“It’s not like that. Logan is,” she shrugs helplessly. “He’s Logan.”

Piz presses on. “So if you had to choose between Logan and Parker, you would choose?”

She sighs. “Piz...”

“You would choose?” She doesn’t answer. She refuses to answer, and Piz can feel himself getting worked up like he hasn’t before. It’s just... She’s slipping away and he doesn’t know if he ever had her to begin with. “Logan and Weevil.” She winces, visibly winces, and shakes her head. “Logan and Wallace.”

She gets a steely look in her eye. “Come on.”

“It’s a question, Veronica. Just answer the question!” He knows he’s attracting attention from the others. Parker and Mac have stopped talking to a mixed group of vegans and sorority looking girls and are staring at him. Logan is frowning and heading over. Wallace has a hot dog halfway to his mouth.

“They’re stupid questions.”

“Why? Why is it so crazy to ask who you choose?” He feels himself getting a little hysterical, but he’s just watched his girlfriend flirt with and exchange soul shaking looks with the ex that nearly put him in traction, so he feels he’s justified.

Veronica explodes. “Because no one but you would ask me to!”

“Veronica?” Logan is there, and Weevil is coming closer. “What’s going on?”

“Yeah, Vee,” Wallace has put down the hot dog and is looking concerned. “What is Piz on about?”

“I just want to know how each of us would measure against Logan for Veronica.” He huffs, the hysterical twinge still present in his voice. “So, if Wallace asked you, who would you keep in your life and who would be out? Wallace or Logan?”

Logan pulls in a breath and looks like he’s been punched. Wallace is working his way toward Veronica. “Piz, man, you’re getting yourself all worked up over nothing.” Turns to Veronica and says, “You don’t have to answer that.”

“No, I don’t,” she says. “But I will. It would be Logan. I would choose Logan under most circumstances over anyone else, if they were the ones asking me to make a choice.” She throws him a disgusted look. “Happy, Piz?”

“Ecstatic,” he grimly replies. “Think I found a few of those puzzle pieces you’re missing.”

He marches off, stunned that he got the last word, and doesn’t look back until he’s standing at the beach entrance and climbing into his car. Logan, Wallace, Weevil and Mac have formed a semi-circle around her. Parker, strangely, is close by too. He hopes one of them will say something about her devotion to Logan versus how she treats him. He’s pretty sure that will never happen.


	4. Chapter 4

She shows up in the morning, pushes her way into his room. Piz can’t find it in himself to fight her on that. 

“So,” she says as she sits on Wallace’s bed. “What was that, yesterday?”

He stares at her balefully. “That was my jealous rage about your ex. I’m pretty sure it bubbled over because he tried to play Picasso with my face.”

She nods. “Yeah.” She pauses. “My best friend had a sex tape made of her, without her knowing. Before she died.” She gives a sad little laugh. “It’s why she died.”

Piz startles. “Excuse me?”

“My best friend. The one who was murdered. She was the star of a covert sex tape too. And she was Logan’s girlfriend.” She stares at him. “I’m not trying to excuse what he did, Piz, but...”

“You’re what, saying he has psychic scars?”

“No. I’m saying that Logan reacted. And he reacted poorly. But one of the reasons why I forgave him and why he’s someone I want in my boat is because I know him. He beat you up because he was trying to protect me. He apologized to you, because he was wrong.”

“And that makes it all better.”

She changes gears again. “You know, I once turned him in for murder.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” She leans back on the bare mattress, evidence that Wallace isn’t coming back this year. “For my best friend’s case. He... ...omitted certain facts about his alibi. And then, after he got out, he got beaten up by Weevil’s gang, because I didn’t get to correct the confusion.” She pauses. “He came to my apartment that night. He forgave me.”

Piz feels like he’s floating, like he’s been sent to another planet. One where these kinds of actions make sense. “I’m not getting what you’re telling me here.”

She just keeps looking at him with this sympathetic stare. “What I’m saying is, the way things work between us? Sometimes we get mangled in the process. Sometimes, we’re too quick to assume we know what’s going on. And then we work on forgiving each other.”

“You’re saying, I should forgive him, because he was just, I don’t know, doing what he does?”

“I’m not saying you have to forgive him for anything. I’m not telling you this so you’ll feel bad for him, or because I think you’re handling this wrong. I’m just... I’m trying to tell you about Neptune.” She turns away from him. “Yesterday, you were talking about legal. Well, legal here doesn’t always equal justice.” She bites her lip. “I broke into the richest man in Neptune’s house to steal a hard drive so I could get answers about that tape. I asked my closest friends break all kinds of laws so I could get my pound of flesh. That’s what it’s about, Piz. In the grand scheme of things, I want justice. I want someone nailed to the cross, and I want it to be the right someone. And I’ll do what it takes to get it. Logan’s like that too. I got the answers, and he nailed the guy to the cross. And he apologized to you because he’d gone after you when you were the wrong guy. So, I forgive him.”

“You want me to be pals with Logan?”

Veronica snorts. “Not unless you want to be. And I don’t think he’d appreciate that either.”

“So, to be clear, if I asked you to stop being friends with him -”

“We’re over.” She hardens, her face becoming stone.

Piz shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “When you say ‘we’?”

“You and I,” she clarifies.

“Oh.” He smiles at his hands. “You know, I should have known. I mean, I have this moment with you about not settling, and in the morning you’re back with him. He’s who you don’t settle for.”

“That’s not what this is,” she denies.

“Okay,” he snorts. “Here’s what I don’t get - you don’t even seem to like him, a lot of the time. So why -”

“He pisses me off. But he’s still -”

“Don’t say ‘Logan’. Please. That’s not a real answer.”

Veronica stands up. Picks up and puts down odds and ends from his side of the room he hasn’t gotten around to packing up yet. 

“Logan’s family. He’s my family.” She pauses, and looks straight at him, as if daring him to recognize what she’s saying. “Maybe more importantly, I’m his family too. So, that’s why.”

“Wait, so we’re breaking up?” His voice cracks. He hates that his voice cracks. He hates that this whole conversation has been leading up to this point, and she’s known and he didn’t.

She still has that stare, that serene stare that is driving him nuts. “I think we broke up before. Maybe it was yesterday. Or maybe it was earlier than that. Maybe it was when Logan punched you. Or, when he apologized for doing it. I don’t know. But, I think it’s time we made it official.”

“I don’t want to break up.”

“I know. Somehow, though, I think it’s for the best. You’re a great guy, Stosh Piznarski. And you deserve a really excellent girl.” She walks toward the door, gives him a kiss on the cheek as she passes. “That’s all I had to say. Bye, Piz.”


	5. Chapter 5

He doesn’t know why he does it, but on the first leg of his drive up to Beaverton, he decides to call Wallace. He knows that calling the best friend to gripe is probably up there in the world’s list of stupidest ideas, but Wallace is his friend too. He hopes that means something to the guy.

Wallace picks up, and the first thing out of Piz’s mouth is, “She broke up with me.”

He can hear Wallace’s sigh. “I know. Man, I don’t think this is a good time.”

“She there?” He wants to stop the car, turn it around, drive to the Fennel residence and get Veronica to listen to his list of reasons why breaking up is a dumb idea. Yes, he made a list of reasons. On actual paper. Yes, he can feel her mocking him about it even as he thinks about showing it to her. It’s barely been 3 hours and it already physically hurts that they’re not together.

“Uh, yeah, actually. So if I could call you back -” There’s muffled conversation through the phone, but Piz is pretty sure that he can hear Veronica bowing out. Maybe she’s leaving him Wallace. Maybe Wallace chose him over her. Maybe Veronica and Wallace were just deciding that Wallace gets to let him down easy about the fact that he has no place in their lives anymore, and he’s going to have to get a new roommate. That would suck. Wallace returns. “Sorry about that. She’s just leaving.”

“How’s she doing?”

“Man, you know I’m not going to answer that question.”

He laughs shakily. “So, she’s fine, right?”

“Piz...” The problem with phones is that you don’t get to see the other person’s face. He’s not sure if Wallace if upset for him, upset with him, or just generally reticent. 

“No, it’s okay. I get it. She’s your best friend. It’s just... I’m not doing so hot.”

Wallace is silent for a second. “No matter what’s going on with her, she doesn’t let it show,” he offers.

“Alright.”

“I mean it. You don’t know the masks that girl has. She could be devastated, she’s still going to do her thing.”

“She’s not, though, right? Not devastated?” She can’t be. Their break up wasn’t a big blow up. It wasn’t even a slow burn. It was like she walked in, and casually blew out the candle of their love, and turned and left without even appreciating the smoke. He thinks that maybe he should reconsider writing songs, because that was a terrible metaphor. Obviously, he needs better material.

Wallace sighs again. “I don’t think so.” He pauses. “I’m sorry, man. I really liked you guys together. Even though it was hella weird to see my fake sister and you snuggling on the same bed.”

“You think maybe I have a shot at getting her back?”

“No. Piz, don’t do this to yourself.”

“You can’t say she’s not worth it, Wallace. You can’t tell me that she’s not great.”

Wallace is silent again. He wonders what’s going through his mind. “You’re right, I can’t tell you those things. Because Vee is amazing, and I love her. But you’re not going to get her back. So, I think you should wallow and then maybe move on.”

“She went back to Logan,” he strikes back.

Wallace snorts. “Yeah, she does that.”

There’s something in the way he said that that makes Piz see white. “They’re back together now?”

“No, Piz. No. Vee wouldn’t do that. Not to you.”

“Why not? She already broke up with me. For him.” He wants Wallace to be on his side for this part. He’s not so sure Wallace is willing to do that.

“You know, I was there too. You put her on the spot and asked her to do what you wanted her to do and stay away from Logan. Anyone who knows her could have told you that wasn’t going to work.”

“I just wanted her to do what she said she was going to do. She told me that she was done with him, and then he’s back, like nothing ever happened.” He knows he’s whining now. “He beat the shit out of me, and the next day it’s like sunshine and roses. Like that first thing never happened at all.”

Wallace is quiet. “Yeah, I know. They’re like that.”

“You know what she told me? That he’s her family. What does that even mean?”

“I think it means she thinks of him like family,” Wallace replies.

Piz seethes. “What about the fact that she would choose him over you? I mean, does that seem fair? Or smart?”

“Oh boy. I am going to get my ass kicked for telling you this, but I’m going to tell you, because clearly no one else has. Okay?’

“Yeah, okay.”

“Aside from the fact that Vee hates getting pressed against a wall and whoever put her there would lose, Logan doesn’t really have anyone else. His parents are dead. His sister’s I don’t know where. His best friend makes regular monkeys look like trained monkeys. He’s got Vee. She’s his damn emergency contact, even. And she’s not going to leave him, even when she hates him.”

“So it’s a pity thing.” 

“No, man, it’s not. You know, they’ve been friends since they were twelve years old? They fight and they scream and they tell each other they’re out of their lives, but they always find their way back. And I don’t even really like the dude, but I can tell you that he’s there for Veronica when she asks him to be. They’ve been through shit that I don’t even know about. So, it isn’t pity. Don’t downplay it like that.” 

He doesn’t know what to say to that. Doesn’t have an answer to that. “I just - it sucks, Wallace.”

“Yeah it does.” 

“And I’m pretty sure she gets you in the break up.”

“Vee doesn’t play that way,” Wallace tells him. “You just can’t be having me as a guest at your pity parties. Because I feel for you, I do. But Vee’s my girl, and I can’t have you badmouthing her to me. You’re going to need a different person for that.”

“Yeah,” he breathes. “Okay. Thanks, man. I needed that.”

“No problem, Piz. We’ll catch up later.”

“Cool, right,” he agrees. “I’ll let you know how the ‘rents react to my new look.”

“I don’t know if a fading black eye counts as a look, but whatever makes you happy.”

“Later.”

Wallaces echoes it, and he hangs up the phone.


	6. Chapter 6

In the second leg of his journey back home, he calls a number that he’s never had cause to before. It’s not that she’s not a pleasant person. He’s just never been interested. Now, he figures she’s in the same boat he’s in. And maybe she’d like someone to talk to, like he does.

“Hello?”

She sounds startlingly sweet. “Hey, Parker. It’s Piz.”

“Oh. Hey.” Her voice flattens out.

“Yeah, so, I don’t know if you’ve heard. But Veronica and I broke up.”

“Bummer.” She doesn’t sound like it is, though.

He gives a half-hearted chuckle, and wonders if maybe the phone just isn’t his thing. Funny, given how at ease he is when he’s talking over the air to people he can’t see on the radio. “Yeah, it kind of is. So, I had kind of a proposition for you, if you were interested.”

“I am not going to be the rebound for any more boys lovesick for Veronica Mars!” Parker yells at him. Piz almost drops the phone in surprise.

“No, no! Nothing like that. It’s just -”

“Just what?” She’s still pissed, he can tell.

“I talked to Wallace, and we’re still cool. But he mentioned finding someone to invite to my pity parties, and I thought maybe - if you were having some of your own - maybe we could have some of them together.”

Parker doesn’t respond for a couple of seconds, and Piz is starting to think she just hung up on him. “What would they entail?”

“You know, the usual. ‘How could they do this to us?’ ‘Why weren’t we enough for them?’ ‘What’s wrong with them?’ ‘How can we best ensure they get hit by a large, embarrassing object in front of news cameras?’ The usual,” he finds himself repeating.

“And how’s that going to work, with you in Oregon and me in Colorado for the summer?”

He decides not to mention the fact that he got an internship in New York. “I - uh, I figured we could, you know, call each other. Whenever we wanted to, just, rant and rave and be generally horrible about Veronica. Or Logan. Or Veronica and Logan. Be each other’s outlet for the crazy that’s bubbling up within.” 

“And what good will this do us?” Parker sullenly asks. 

Piz taps on his steering wheel. “Well, I thought that it might be therapeutic. Wallace doesn’t want to listen to me about Veronica; and I don’t know how Mac feels about Logan, but I’m betting she doesn’t want to hear about Veronica either. And I don’t really know anyone else who knows her and him aside from you. If you’re not into it, cool. It was just an idea.”

“No,” she says slowly. “I think I might be into it.”

“Cool!” He feels relieved. 

“When do you want to do this?”

“Whenever. I’ve got a drive here, so, if you had anything to say now, you could.”

She practically growls into the phone. “I just can’t believe him. I mean, I get that he doesn’t want to see her with other guys, but to beat you up? How does he get off on playing the white knight and then acting like I’m the unreasonable one for being pissed about it?”

He can’t help but be glad that someone else in the world is still pissed at the whole ‘he got beaten up’ thing. “Yeah, and Veronica was only pissed about it for like, a day. A whole day, my girlfriend is mad at the guy who bruised my ribs and mashed up my face. But then, he does that to another guy, and suddenly everything is roses again.”

Parker makes a sympathetic keening sound, and Piz feels a little better. “I know. And then it’s the same. It’s ‘Parker, Logan’s going to come because he wants to say goodbye to Veronica’.”

“‘Piz, Logan’s coming because I want to see him. What are you so worried about?’”

“‘Parker, he didn’t mean to hurt you’.”

“‘Piz, he’s really sorry he hurt you’.”

“‘Parker, what did you think would happen? He’s your friend’s ex’!”

“‘Piz’,” he starts, and then stops. “Yeah, I got nothing for that one.”

“Next year,” Parker declares, “I’m making friends with people who don’t even know Veronica Mars.”

“Next year,” he agrees, “I’m making friends with people who hate Veronica Mars. And Logan Echolls.”

“Oh, that’s good. I like that.”

He laughs. “There has to be enough of them on campus. I just have to find the ones who don’t hate her because of the sex tape.”

“Well, good luck with that,” she chirps.

“Thanks. I’m thinking I’m going to have to put out a ‘wanted’ ad in the school paper.”

She giggles. “Sounds excellent. Listen, as much fun as this bitch session was, I’ve got to finish packing if I ever hope to get everything together for storage. And then I’ve got to figure out how I’m getting to the airport for my flight home.”

“Oh, yeah? Who was supposed to take you?”

“Logan and Veronica.”

Yeah, he thinks. That figures. Out loud he says, “Good luck.”

“Thanks. I think I’m going to need it.”


	7. Chapter 7

He accidentally finds out about Logan and Veronica when he calls her for her birthday. He had been thinking about driving down to Virginia for the weekend, just hopping in a rented car and leaving straight from the Pitchfork offices. He wasn’t afraid to admit that he missed her. But when she answers, he can hear someone in the background.

“Who’s there? Buddies from the Bureau?” he asks, hoping for some good news.

She scoffs. “Yeah, that’s really me. I draw people to me like a lantern pulls in mosquitos.” She pauses. “I swear, I’m beloved where ever I go.”

“You know, you really should check out this book. It’s called, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’. It may help you out,” he teases.

“Booooring!” she sing-songs back. “I prefer to lone wolf it. Be hated. It makes my victories all the sweeter.”

He hears that same someone in the background guffaw at that. “So, did your dad fly out or something?”

“Uh, it’s Logan, actually. Didn’t want me to be alone on my birthday.”

He grimaces. “Isn’t that sweet of him.”

“Yeah,” she says wistfully. “It really is.”

“So, when’s he leaving you?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” She calls out to Logan, “Hey, when are you flying back to Neptune?”

He hears something unintelligible on the other end of the phone. He wonders how it is that Logan can mumble so much and still be found so attractive.

“He says when waiting around for me to be done with the feds for the day stops being interesting. So, probably tomorrow,” she jokes.

He hears more muffled movement, and a shriek. “Yeah, cool. Well, I was just calling for your birthday, so I’ll let you get back to the celebrations.”

“Thanks,” she says. “It really means a lot that you called.”

“Yeah. Great. See you in the fall.”

“Yup! Have fun meeting with the up and comers. If you need a background check on anyone, just give me a holler.”

“Will do.” He’s pretty sure he’s speaking to dead air. He sighs. And scrolls through his recent call log. “Hey, Parker. How’s Colorado?”

She buzzes about for a while about her parents and their expectations of her, and then says, “So, how did the birthday call go?”

“In a word: Logan.”

She gasps. “What?”

“He’s there with her. In Virginia.”

“No way.” He can hear her ruffling, getting into a more comfortable position. “How long?”

He sighs. “I have no idea. She says he flew out there for her birthday. But I don’t know if he came like on her birthday or if he’s been there for a month, you know?”

“God, I can’t believe them!” This is the Parker he likes best. The one who has the same feeling of neglect and outrage about Logan and Veronica he does. “Did you know that he was going to go surfing with Dick the entire summer? The entire summer, and he didn’t even think to tell me. And then, I got a pityvite. And then he cancels on me, and makes no mention of spending any time in Colorado at all. It was just like, ‘See you when I see you, Parker Lee’. No commitment.”

He nods at the phone, realizing that it’s ridiculous. “I know. Veronica didn’t seem bummed at all when I said I got an internship in New York. And she didn’t even think about me when she got the internship in Virginia, even though I mentioned getting a different internship in Neptune. It was like, she didn’t even care.”

“Sometimes I get so mad at Mac I could scream,” she says. He nods again. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, she had to know. She had to know that he wasn’t over her. That she had that pull over him. But it was just, ‘Oh, Parker’s dating Logan’. It feels like they were waiting for me to crash and burn.”

“I feel kind of the same way about Wallace. I mean, he warned me a little. But he didn’t say anything that made them out to be anything other than high school couple. Not until the end, when I’m wondering why Logan gets to still be in the club.”

“It’s like they played us. Like we were just there to hurt the other one, until one of them broke.”

Somehow, it’s moments like this when he wonders how he can still have any warm feelings toward Veronica. Because what Parker says sounds completely and totally true. “And now, we’re just cast offs.”

“Yeah.” Parker gets quiet. “You know, I really thought he liked me.”

They get to this point a lot. When both of them are just worn down and out of righteous anger. “Yeah. I thought she liked me too. I mean, I knew that I liked her more than she liked me. I liked her from the moment I saw her. But at the end, I thought that there was something between us.”

“Hey. What do you think about my calling her for her birthday?” Parker throws out.

He stills. “Do you want to do that?”

“As strange as it is, I still think of her as a friend. A friend I currently loathe, but still a friend.”

“Then I say call her. The worst that can happen is she pisses you off. And if you need to, you can always call me afterwards.”

She laughs. “Don’t you have an internship to get to in the morning?”

“Yeah,” he says. “But I’ll cut into my sleeping schedule for you.”

“You’re a really great guy, Stosh Piznarski,” she tells him. Somehow, it sounds truer when she says it than when Veronica did. “She doesn’t know what she’s missing out on. ‘Night.”

He grins into the phone. “Night, Parker Lee.”

He waits for her to call him back. He does other things in the meantime. But he wants to make sure he’s available if she needs him. She doesn’t, and that’s okay too.


	8. Chapter 8

He’s back on campus a week before he sees her. Piz is surprised, honestly. Rooming with Wallace, he expected to see her frequently. Was kind of hoping to, if he’s perfectly honest. He wants to minimize the effect she has on him. He figures exposure can only help. 

So when he sees her, he goes out of his way to say hi.

“Piz! Hi. How was your internship?” She seems genuinely glad to see him. He thinks maybe he’s wrong about this whole ‘exposure’ thing.

“It was good. Hey, do you want to grab lunch? Maybe catch up a bit?”

She looks at her watch. “You know what, sure. We can do that.”

They get lunch and find a table, and just talk. All summer, when he was moping to Parker about their relationship, the thing he forgot was how easy it is to talk to her. How great she is to just ‘be’ with. He’s telling her stories of bands he got to see perform and reviews he got to read before they hit the internet, and she is excited for him. He’s grinning and he knows it.

“How about you?” he asks. “What was it like, interning for the FBI.”

“It was good.” She shields her eyes from the sun. “It was really informative. I have a bunch of new tricks I can use, now.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’,” he tells her.

“Ok, but, I don’t think I want to do it for a living. Don’t get me wrong, the twelve weeks were great. I had a lot of fun with the job part of the job. But,” she gestures with a french fry, “that’s all it was to a lot of them. There were no people. There were only cases. There was no personal connection.”

“Maybe that comes later. When you’re actually an agent.”

She makes a face. “Yeah, I know. It’s not like I was expecting them to hand me active case files and tell me to get to making the magic happen. It’s just - even at the upper levels, it’s all about the process. Getting the bad guys because they broke the law. And they’re really good at it. But what I learned is that I like what I do. I like being the big wheel in the machine, and not just the tiny cog.” 

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Plus!” She points a different french fry at him. “The whole ‘working within the boundaries of the law’ thing? Totally untenable for me.”

“You could do it, though.”

She shrugs at him. “Yeah, but it’s all about the bureau, you know? It’s about making cases for the bureau. It’s about going after the people the bureau deems dangerous. It’s about enforcing the law for the sake of the law, and I’ve seen that go wrong too many times. It’s the people like Weevil who get caught up in the mess, even though they’re just trying to survive. And the rich can usually weasel their way out.” She leans back. “I like the fact that I can get a guy to stop harassing a girl without taking five months and a meticulous paper trail. I like that I can bluff and fight my way out of problems. The whole FBI thing is cool, but I think I may have wanted it because it’s instant respect.”

“That’s... Incredibly self-aware,” he finds himself saying.

“Yeah.” She smiles at him. “I may have ended up in some therapy too. A regular mental health screening showed I had some anger issues. Also, some trust issues. Basically, issues.”

“And they’re gone now?”

“Not on your life, Beaverton. I’m just better at masking them. Thank god for therapy; now I can pass for a normal person.”

He laughs. “So, uh, have you seen Logan since your birthday?”

“Yeah.” She doesn’t say anything else. He’s not sure how to continue on.

“You know, Parker and I talked a lot this summer.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah,” he tells her. “We basically plotted yours and Logan’s deaths.”

“Be careful, Piznarski,” she warns him. “Just because I’m not a well liked individual doesn’t mean I won’t be avenged. I know people.”

“Like ex gang members,” he says. “I remember.”

She laughs and stands up. “Exactly. Weevil would not be happy. Anyway, it was great seeing you, but I’ve got to get to class.”

“Right, of course.” He stands up too. “Just so you know, I have my radio show back. You should listen.”

“I’ll try to.” She gives him a little wave and walks away. He watches her go. And he watches her meet up with a guy who looks like he could be Logan. He continues watching as they kiss, and as they walk out of sight.


	9. Chapter 9

Piz sighs, shifts on his bed. It’s been another week or so, and he’s seen neither hair nor hide of his roommate’s best friend. Shifts again, and spies said roommate working on an engineering problem at his desk. “So.” He starts off weak, he knows that. “Have you seen Veronica lately?” Ends weak too.

Wallace doesn’t even bother looking up. “Yeah. I have.”

Piz nods. Tucks his hands behind his head. “How is she?”

“She’s good.”

“You aren’t going to give me anything else, are you?”

Wallace gives a long suffering sigh. “I told her not to break your heart, but did she listen to me? No, she didn’t. And now I’ve got to deal with you puppy dogging it worse than ever.”

He feels more than vaguely affronted at that description. “I am not puppy dogging.”

“Uh huh.” Wallace is clearly less than convinced. Piz thinks he may need to step up his game. “So, you haven’t been wondering why she’s not hanging around?”

“Well, sure I have. I just - she’s your best friend, right? She should feel comfortable coming over.”

Wallace smirks like he knows something Piz doesn’t. “Is that right?”

“Yeah.” He continues with confidence. “We dated. Things didn’t work out. We can be friends. Or, friendly. We can certainly exchange mild pleasantries before one of us leaves the room.” Nods, like it’ll add some gravitas to this whole thing.

Wallace leans back. “Good to know.”

“Right. So, is she seeing anyone?” His roommate gives him a warning look. “Just, you know, to know.”

Wallace turns back to his homework. “You gotta let it go, Piz. She was never going to be your one.”

“How do you know?” He doesn’t want to ask that question. Except maybe he does.

“Vee’s got this way of looking at the world. She’s all fire and brimstone. And you’re all New Testament, turn the other cheek. And I’m not saying that isn’t great and I’m not saying you couldn’t have made it work with her, helped smooth out her edges. But she doesn’t want those edges smoothed, and you can’t help her with a problem she doesn’t admit she has.” Throws down a pen.

“I’m sensing there’s an ‘and’ in there somewhere.” 

Wallace gets up from his seat and plonks himself down on his bed. “Yeah, the ‘and’ is Logan Echolls.” Piz shakes his head. “You don’t get it. And that’s okay, because I really don’t get it. But she has a yen for that guy that just won’t quit. Until it does, no one else really has a shot.”

“What happened to she was never getting back together with him?” Piz wonders.

Wallace sighs. “You know that fire and brimstone deal? Sometimes she grants absolutions.”

Piz pauses. “Okay. So, they’re together now.”

Wallace nods. “Yeah.”

“And they’re going to be together for the near future.”

Wallace nods again. “Yeah, man. They’re working on it.”

“So, shouldn’t she and I try to at least be friendly? I mean, you’re my friend and roommate, and she’s your best friend. And beyond everything else, she’s one of the only people here I actually wanted to talk to this summer.”

Wallace groans. “You’re looking for me to facilitate this, aren’t you?” Piz grins. “I’m not promising anything. I’m not asking her to do something she doesn’t want to do. And you’re not exactly Logan’s favorite person, so there’s that.”

“Why is that?” Piz grumbles. “He got the girl.”

“He’s a bit touchy about the guy who had the hots for his girlfriend for months and finally dated her when they were broken up,” Wallace tells him pointedly. Continues in that same vein with, “You think you would deal better?”

Piz blushes, remembering the going away party. “Yeah, okay. I see your point.”

“Good.” Wallace sits back at his desk. “Now, if we’re done talking about your love life, I’m going to try not to fail my class. Please, help me with that by not mentioning Vee any more.”

He nods. “Sure, dude. No problem.”


	10. Chapter 10

Because he and Parker made what he thought was an off-handed sulky remark but she took as a sacred pact, they attend the college club faire together to try and find people who are wholly unconnected with Veronica Mars. And Logan Echolls.

She’s chowing down on the free food being offered for reasons he hasn’t quite glombed to, chattering at him at a speed he didn’t really know humans could accomplish, and he’s managed to secure a Bible that looks like it has military fatigues on without actually joining the Campus Crusade for Christ, so he’s calling it a win. Piz thinks the Model UN club may have gotten his e-mail address and a promise to consider filling the role of Paraguay out of him, but he’s ignoring that for now.

“You know,” Parker tells him after they do the initial walk around and they’re both loaded up with free crap, “there’s not really a lot of clubs I’m really interested in.”

“Yeah,” Piz agrees. “They all seem a little cultish.”

They watch as the sci-fi club glares at the fantasy club’s unusually long line. “Want to see what that’s about?”

Piz shrugs and they’re off. 

“It’s only because they’ve deigned to allow lesser works like Twilight,” the guy wearing the Team Picard shirt grumpily tells them.

Parker looks at him, wide eyed and confused. “Okay.”

“Anyway, club meets every Tuesday for sci-fi television, Wednesday for sci-fi novels, and Friday for sci-fi movies. We’re rewatching Blade Runner first, because apparently no one can think outside the box.”

Piz takes Parker’s elbow and starts leading her away. “Thanks. We’ll definitely think about popping by.”

“What’s Twilight?” she asks him.

“I don’t know,” Piz tells her, bewildered. “I didn’t even know sci-fi and fantasy were different things.”

“And to think, if you’d never gone to college, your horizons wouldn’t have been broadened.” She grins at him and he laughs.

“You’re right. I would have been bereft of that knowledge.”

“Maybe that could be a topic for your radio show,” Parker suggests as they loop back around the back of the Irish American Club and steal a couple pieces of pizza off the Italian Club’s table. “The differences between sci-fi and fantasy.”

“I usually try to cover topics that are a little more philosophical,” he muses. Her face falls. He hastens to add, “But, it could be cool to see if anyone has anything to say about how and if the different mediums provide different levels of success in analyzing society and societal problems.”

She gestures with her pizza slice, and he smiles at her exuberance. “See? Totally works.”

“I’m having fun,” he realizes.

“Yeah. Me too.” She smiles at him. He smiles back. “This isn’t a date.”

He blinks. “What?”

“This isn’t a date. You’re still caught up on Veronica and I don’t think I’m ready for another relationship right now anyway, so this is in no way a date. Got it?”

Sometimes he wonders if the entire world is functioning on a different level than he is, because these things happen and he has no idea how or why or what the best method is to respond. “Okay. Not a date.”

She bounces next to him. “Good! Glad we got that settled.”

“Yeah. It would have been pretty bad, if we didn’t have it out right there,” he teases. 

“Shut it. I told my mother what we were doing today, and she asked if you where ‘that boy’ I spent so much time on the phone with this summer, and said I was leading you on. I didn’t want to lead you on.”

“You know, I don’t think you should listen to your mom half as much as you do.” He panics a bit, wondering if he’s overstepped some line he didn’t know existed.

She looks thoughtful. “Yeah?”

He feels like he’s getting his feet under him again. “Yeah. You’re here, she’s not. You’re the one doing these things. She’s not. So, don’t let her make you second guess yourself. If you didn’t think you were leading me on, you weren’t. I can attest that I did not feel led on in the slightest.”

She smiles at him again, and he’s thankful she’s got problems he can wrap his head around, like overbearing parents, instead of problems he can’t even begin to imagine happening in real life, like having a sex tape leaked by a shadowy organization.

“Hey, uh, I know the goal was to make friends with people who didn’t know our exes, but -” He pauses, feels a bit stupid, presses on. “Friends?” He sticks out his hand for her to shake, and he can feel the whispered “Beaverton” coming out and enveloping him, as if Hearst knew he wasn’t from around here.

Parker looks at his hand in amusement, though, and it occurs to him that she is also not from around here. She grabs it and shakes it with gusto. “Friends.”

They walk out to the tables, and Veronica is there, with Wallace and Mac and Logan and a couple of people he doesn’t quite recognize but knows he knows. They look like they’re goofing off. He turns to Parker. “So, I don’t know about you, but I still want to make new friends.” She nods. “But I’m okay with our old friends too. Even the exes. Want to maybe see if sitting with them goes well?”

Parker hooks his arm with her own. “You know, I am. I think I’m over it. We’re two normal people who got sucked into that not normal world, and we made it out the other side alive. So, yeah. I’m good. Besides,” she adds, “I don’t think we can just join ‘normal people’ club and expect it to work, you know?”

He knows. He knows he and Parker aren’t really a part of their Neptune world. Doesn’t know if he actually wants to be. But, they’re his friends. They’re the first people he met on campus who didn’t steal from him, and that’s something too. He doesn’t want to give that up just because some amazing girl could have had his heart and chose not to take it. He can’t resent that, at least not any more. He's done throwing himself a pity party. It's time to rejoin the non-jilted populace once more.


End file.
